One State for one People. Thou shalt not be a victim, or perpetrator, but above all, thou shalt not be a bystander. Yasher Koach!

June 30, 2014

The Arab Lobby - Dershowitz....

While the media and politicians engage in frenzied debate about the
virtues and vices of building—or preventing the building of—a Muslim
community center (cum mosque) near the "sacred ground" of 9/11, Iran
continues to build a nuclear weapon, as the Israelis and Palestinians
take a tentative step toward building a peaceful resolution to their
age-old conflict. Inevitably, whenever Middle East issues take center
stage, the question of the role of lobbies, particularly those that
advocate for foreign countries, becomes a hot topic. This book by
longtime Middle East authority, Mitchell Bard, is a must read for anyone
who cares—and who doesn't?—about the role of lobbies in influencing
American policy in the Middle East. Its thesis, which is sure to be
controversial, is easily summarized:

Yes Virginia,
there is a big bad lobby that distorts US foreign policy in the Middle
East way out of proportion to its actual support by the American public.
Professors Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, author of the screed, The
Israel Lobby, are right about that. But the offending lobby is not
AIPAC, which supports Israel, but rather the Arab lobby, which opposes
the Jewish state.

Both the pro-Israel and pro-Arab
lobby (really lobbies because there are several for each) are indeed
powerful but there is a big difference — a difference that goes to the
heart of the role of lobbying in a democracy. Bard puts it this way:

"One
of the most important distinguishing characteristics of the Arab lobby
is that it has no popular support. While the Israeli lobby has hundreds
of thousands of grass root members and public opinion polls consistently
reveal a huge gap between support for Israel and the Arab
nations/Palestinians, the Arab lobby has almost no foot soldiers or
public sympathy. It's most powerful elements tend to be bureaucrats who
represent only their personal views or what they believe are their
institutional interests, and foreign governments that care only about
their national interests, not those of the United States. What they lack
in human capital in terms of American advocates, they make up for with
almost unlimited resources to try to buy what they usually cannot win on
the merits of their arguments."

The Arab Lobby: The
Invisible Alliance That Undermines America’s Interests in the Middle
East. By Mitchell Bard. 432 pages. Harper. $27.99. This is a critical
distinction for a democracy. The case for Israel (though not for all of
its policies) is an easy sell for pro-Israel lobbyists, especially
elected representatives. Voting in favor of Israel is popular not only
in areas with large concentration of Jewish voters, but throughout the
country, because Israel is popular with Evangelical Christians in
particular and with much, though certainly not all, of the public in
general. Lobbies that reflect the will of the people are an important
part of the democratic process. Thus, the American Association of
Retired People (AARP), the principal lobbying group for the elderly, is
extremely powerful because there are so many elderly people in this
country who want to protect social security, Medicaid, and other
benefits. The National Rifle Association (NRA) is a powerful lobby
precisely because so many Americans, for better or worse, love their
guns. And The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is a
powerful lobby because Americans, in general, support the Middle East's
only democracy and reliable American ally.

But why is
the Arab lobby, and most particularly the Saudi lobby, also powerful?
Saudi Arabia has virtually no support among Americans. Indeed, it is
widely reviled for its export of terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden, its
manipulation of oil prices, its anti-Christian and anti-Semitic
policies, its total deprivation of any semblance of freedom of speech or
dissent, and its primitive forms of punishment that include stoning and
amputation. Yet, as Bard demonstrates, the Saudi lobby has beaten the
pro-Israel lobby over and over again in head to head conflicts, such as
the sale of sophisticated weapons to a regime that doesn't even have the
technical skills to use them, and the conflict over whether to move the
United States' Embassy to Jerusalem. Even now, Saudi Arabia is lobbying
to obtain a multi-billion dollar arms deal , and it is likely to
succeed over the objections of Israel.

How then does a
lobby with no popular support manage to exert influence in a democratic
country? The secret is very simple. The Arab lobby in general and the
Saudis in particular make little effort to influence popularly elected
public officials, particularly legislators. Again, listen to Bard:

"The
Saudis have taken a different tact from the Israeli lobby, focusing a
top-down rather than bottom-up approach to lobbying. As hired gun, J.
Crawford Cook, wrote in laying out his proposed strategy for the
kingdom, 'Saudi Arabia has a need to influence the few that influence
the many, rather than the need to influence the many to whom the few
must respond.'"

The primary means by which the Saudis
exercise this influence is money. They spend enormous amounts of lucre
to buy (or rent) former state department officials, diplomats, White
House aides, and legislative leaders who become their elite lobbying
corps. Far more insidiously, the Saudis let it be known that if current
government officials want to be hired following their retirement from
government service, they had better hue to the Saudi line while they are
serving in our government. The former Saudi ambassador to the United
States, Prince Bandar, who was so close to the President George H.W.
Bush that he referred to himself as "Bandar Bush," acknowledged the
relationship between how a government official behaves while in office
and how well he will be rewarded when he leaves office. "If the
reputation then builds that the Saudis take care of friends when they
leave office, you'd be surprised how much better friends you have when
they are just coming into office."

Bard concludes from
this well known quid pro quo that: "given the potential of these
post-retirement opportunities, it would not be surprising if officials
adopted positions while in government to make themselves marketable to
the Arab lobby."

The methodology employed by the Arab
lobby is thus totally inconsistent with democratic governance, because
it does not reflect the will of the people but rather the corruption of
the elite, while the Israeli lobby seems to operate within the
parameters of democratic processes. Yet so much has been written about
the allegedly corrosive nature of the Israeli lobby, while the powerful
Arab lobby has widely escaped scrutiny and criticism. This important
book thus contributes to the open marketplace of ideas by illuminating
the dark side of the massive and largely undemocratic Arab lobbying
efforts to influence American policy with regard to the Middle East.

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About Me

I write this blog to voice an opinion of a : non-PC, non-politically affiliated, pro meritocracy, TNSTAAFL, believer in NO man, that is sick and tired of the Arab / Muslim taqiyya campaign of lies and fabrication, who is striving for observance and Aliyah.